MD: Chapter 4
by MrBlackjack
Summary: Kallos assembles his team for his new mission assigned to him by Darkseid. Clark returns home, while Miles is heading to meet with his friend Peter on what he's taken from Oscorp. Tony and company learn what came through the wormhole over Santa Cruz.


**Episode 4: Set in Motion**

Miles held his breath until he stepped out the heavy glass doors of the Oscorp lobby. He released his breath and his chest deflated as he looked up at the tall skyscraper he stepped out of before his mobile rang, "Peter," he said into the mouth piece.

"How was your first day on the job?" Peter asked.

"Fine with a touch of fear running down my back. Look, I got what you are asking for with me. Where are you now?" Miles asked.

"I'm swinging through Times Square, heading home now. You can meet me at my place tonight."

"All right good, last thing I want is to be caught with this on me. I can kiss my career in IT Security goodbye." Miles started walking away from Oscorp.

"Miles, you're gonna be fine. As a matter a fact, once we find what we're looking for and break it to the media, we will be heroes! Well I'm one technically all ready, but you know what OI mean! You'll be wanted for your skills. I know IT security is very high in demand these days." said Peter.

"Wish that were true for me, if anything I'll be taken by the NSA, locked in some vault office where I work for them and I'm never heard from again."

"Oh Miles!" Peter exclaimed before ending the call.

Miles put away his phone and made his way down the sidewalk trying not to bump into people as he plugged in his headphones into his smart phone and pulled up a video app to watch late night show host Chris Jones interview Tony Stark.

" _You like doing this superhero gig don't you Tony?"_

" _I have no idea what you're talking about."_ Tony shrugs off the idea and gives a guilty smile to the audience laughing. The host cracks a smile back.

" _Yeah sure keep telling yourself that."_

" _That's the thing I thought was funny when I was put in this position not that long ago."_

" _Oh really? You wondered whether you were cut enough to be a superhero?"_ The audience laughs.

" _That,"_ Tony paused before continued, " _But more so about that question as to whether or not to share with the world my identity, that it was me that is Iron Man."_

" _And why, why was that?"_

" _Well over a decade and a half ago you know, we had superheroes who hid their faces and I think that was one of the reasons why people didn't trust them, and I didn't want to go through that predicament."_

" _So you were looking out for the Tony brand?"_

" _Oh always, that's the thing about business, you always have to look out for the brand. That's why they couldn't work too well. How is Batman suppose to pay for the damage to the harbor he did when he was out chasing the baddies? Not only that but then we have these super beings and while I'm sure their hearts were in the right place, in the end it was just too dangerous for them to be around us. Let us worry about us."_

"Face it Gordon, you're time is up." said Mayor Alonzo as he poured bourbon into his glass.

The commissioner was stiff as he waited in his seat across the mayor's desk, "I'm not leaving until the work is done in this city. We are closing in on some targets now as we speak."

Alonzo took his seat across from Gordon, "I know you are dedicated to the job and truly care for the city, that's why I have never brought up this topic before. But with things regressing to how they were nearly two decades ago, we need new blood around here, and we need to call in for help."

"Don't give me that new blood talk Mr. Mayor," Gordon waved his hand at the mayor, "No one knows these criminals as well as I do, certainly not the Feds. They never bothered before the Batman came on the scene."

"Say what you want about them, but in other major cities, things are changing. We need their assistance, they have men dedicated to this kind of work now."

"Yeah? How's New York been doing trying to catch that Spider-Man? Not to mention some even working for them like Mr. Stark. I don't like it, none of it." Gordon crossed his arms and paused, "Say we do let them come in here, then what? We just let them come in and do our work for us? Make us be a sort of police state or something?"

"That's not what I'm hearing from other cities across the nation…"

Gordon stood from his seat and set his index finger down on the desk, "Gotham stays with us." Gordon turned around and walked towards the door.

"Wait, all right fine. I'll keep it as is, but at least let's have one concession."

"What is that? Gotham is what they wanted isn't it?" Gordon asked.

"It is what they would like to do, but they also provide other services, and well we can still take them up on some of those things. They just want to help." The mayor stood from his seat and approached Gordon, "I know county has been going nuts for years with trying to deal with Joker, SHIELD has facilities where we can transport some of our criminals, like him, and not have to deal with the ensuing chaos they instill into our prisons."

Gordon looked down at the floor with a heavy sigh, "It would certainly bring down the daily level of violence the officers have to deal with when it comes to him." Gordon paused then looked to the mayor, "All right fine, if it means that we keep Gotham under our eyes and not theirs they can have him and anyone else they want, God knows they are seen like leaders to the dirt of this city."

"All right, I'll be sure to reach out to them tomorrow. Thank you Gordon." the mayor walked the commissioner out of his office before closing the door. When he did, he turned the lock, made his way to his desk phone, and pressed a number that when under a contact on his phone as unlisted, "Just finished talking to him, you were right, it's up to you now if you want me to nominate a new commissioner." Alonzo hung up after that and drank his bourbon.

Outside city hall the night was cold with the wind breezing through the streets of downtown Gotham. Gordon pulled his coat over him and made his way to the police unit car that was parked out front. Inside he looked at himself with the rear view mirror, "Can't teach an old dog new tricks," he said to himself out loud. Gordon started the engine and made his way back to his office at the station.

Tony made his way through AIM Labs security, leaving his suit by the metal detector when one of the guards tried to look inside of it from the back opening, "Nah, nah, no, no." Tony was wagging his finger at them, "no peeking." Tony made an arm gesture as he faced the suit and the Iron Man armor closed its opening, sealing the suit.

Inside they were waiting for him, Aldrich, Steve, and Nick Fury were all there. "Glad you could make it to the party, Tony." moaned Aldrich.

"Best for last, by the way when have you guys actually made something _really_ life changing?" Tony posed the question.

"AIM has helped SHIELD in other ways that are currently are of a top secret nature, Tony," Nick fury interrupted, "For now let's just focus that that incident in Santa Cruz."

"What is there to focus on? Obviously it isn't a sign of imminent invasion, nor is it an anomaly that should be happening at this close to the surface. So that leaves it as something that is created by an extraterrestrial force, and question is why and did anything come through it?"

"That's why we're here," Steve chimed in as he waved over to Aldrich.

"Something did come through the wormhole, something living." Aldrich pulled out a remote and pointed to the white rectangular screen behind him that hung on the wall. The screen came alive with colors and the AIM logo then transformed images of the wormhole flying over Santa Cruz then freezing when an object falls from it. Aldrich freezes the image, "There, right there." Steve squinted to see the object as did Tony.

"A body?" posed Steve.

"That's what we're guessing from what we could gather from imagery, from the trajectory of it it seems to have landed on this rooftop, but when local authorities came, there was nothing there."

"Ran off?" questioned Tony.

"Most likely yes, there was evidence of a living body was there when it landed. One of our agents in that area collected blood samples and feathers."

"Feathers?" asked Steve.

"Yes. They took everything they could find up there as evidence. From what we gathered immediately from the blood sample is that it is indeed alien. As for the feathers, we are still working on that and are having it trying to match any existing types of birds found here."

"So where do I come into this, Aldrich?" asked Tony as he crossed his arms.

"You tell me. You were so interested on figuring this out on your own I figure that by the you came here you would be running the show." Aldrich let out a smile.

"Oh well why didn't you say so? What you said about the anomaly that is what I would argue too. As to the blood sample, while I didn't get a sample of it myself I did manage to come up with possible suspects through what I could find on your servers about it before I took off to arrive here."

"You hacked into my system?" Aldrich was pained.

"Relax, nothing caught my interest but this. This is what I believe the blood will come back as," Tony pulled out his cell phone, aimed it at the screen, and the imagery that was on his phone's screen now took over the giant screen on the wall and there was an image of a hero of years past, Hawkman. "Thanagarian."

"Right, understood, be careful Jordan, J'onn out." the martian took the headset off and placed it on the keyboard of his laptop before turning back to Katar, "Hal and the entire Green Lantern Corp have been informed in regards to this Darkseid you speak of."

"Thank you, though as much as I wished for it, it won't be enough I'm afraid. Darkseid's power is too strong for the corp. even with the power they do possess. If he thinks about taking Oa out, he very well might be able to do so." Katar ached in pain still.

"The medication, it isn't strong enough for you, is it?" asked the martian.

"No, not even for our young this won't do. Humans are fairly weak beings when you think about them in the great scheme of things."

"Perhaps to some," said J'onn with a monotone voice.

Katar looked at him concerned, "What are you suggesting J'onn?"

"I'm not suggesting anything. I am acknowledging that to some beings outside this system, humans can be seen in poor light."

"Don't you? You are of a different origin, look what they have forced you to do. Hide out among the trees and be forgotten about, treating you more like some wild beast instead of an intellectual being. Same goes to Superman and the others. They banished them and the sad thing is despite all the power we have over them, we took it."

"You came back, here, you could have let them suffer at the hands of Darkseid. Why bother then?"

Katar gave pause, "Because, despite how far they are compared to beings like us, it is still a place I can call home."

"They may not want us around now, but there is something in them that makes them special and worth fighting for at the end of the day." J'onn tended to Katar's wounds, "Things will get better Katar, you must have faith in it."

"Good to see you Clark, I didn't expect to see you come back here! I figure that you would sell it off and stay in Metropolis like when you were done with college," said Mr. Kettledorn.

"Thank you for letting me have it, I can pay it back to you once I've started up and everything is set." Clark fixed his glasses on his nose as he set aside a box full of his personal belongings on the kitchen table inside his old childhood home.

"Unnecessary Clark, your mom was a kind woman and your father was a good man, and I won't let their kid start off with a debt, especially in this field of work."

Clark smiled to his old neighbor, "Thank you."

"Sure you don't want any help with moving and unpacking your things inside? It'll be a lot shorter with two men versus one."

"It's all right Mr. Kettledorn, I'll manage, but thank you for the offer." Clark said to him.

"All right then, if there is anything else you need Clark, just reach out and I'll be happy to help." Mr. Kettledorn stepped out out of the house and made his way back to his truck, leaving Clark with all of his belongings on the porch for him to organize.

The fields were empty, the barn's paint was faded, and the wood itself was rotten in some parts, but the house still stood even with a small layer of dust over everything. When Clark made his way up stairs he checked the rooms, and sure enough things were packed in boxes but left in the rooms that they were in originally. When he stepped into his parents room there was a picture of them from when they first moved into the house set on the drawers against the wall, the picture itself was faded and in brown and white. Clark took a moment to look at it. Jonathan and Martha Kent were smiling back at Clark through the picture.

"Sorry for leaving home in the state it is now, but I promise you two, I'll get it back running." Clark took the picture into his room and set it on the bedside table beside the lamp.

Kallos marched down the halls of the Darkseid's palace on Apokolips with haste, making his way down to the warrior pit. There he found his colleagues practicing with their weapons.

"Brothers!" Kallos raised his arms in greeting his fellow soldiers of war and blood.

"Kallos!" Grun Grun, a short and green creature with giant black eyes of oil stopped his work out and ran over to Kallos to give him a giant hug. The other, Xassas, dressed in black dropped his rifle to his side and approached Kallos in his hood over his head, "I thought you were still on Thangar? Or have you had your fill of blood?" asked Grun Grun.

"No, no, on the contrary, I could keep going especially since Thanagarians love to fight up close with their weapons in hand, something you couldn't do Xassas!"

Xassas holstered his weapon and crossed his arms, "Please, just because I prefer the rifle over the fist doesn't mean I don't enjoy the fight when it is in my face." Xassas pulls out a obsidian decorative dagger and let it shine in the light before putting it away on his belt.

"Well if you are still able to fight for our father then why are you here?" asked Grun Grun.

"I have been assigned a new task by him, and I would like you two to join me on this hunt." Kallos pulled out a holodisk from his bag.

"Hunt you say?" question Xassas, "Sounds fun enough, who or what are we hunting?"

"A Thanagarian leader who escaped Darkseid's hands, he is a mighty fighter I will acknowledge that, but instead of fighting to his last breath he coward and ran. His name is Katar Hol, leading general, and from the looks of it, last member of the Thanagarian race." The holodisk came on and a perfect image of Katar Hol appeared in his palm. "Prepare the ship, we begin immediately."

 _ **TO BE CONTINUED...**_


End file.
